The terrorist co-pilot who tried to plunge a Dubai-to-Tel Aviv jetliner into a suicide dive is facing possible execution, according to a report from Israeli outlet Ynet citing a top Emirati official.
Abu Dhabi authorities will likely throw the book at 29-year-old terrorist Hamam al-Hammami, demanding the maximum sentence under law following the mid-air nightmare aboard Flydubai Flight FZ1073.
Mossad operatives and Israeli aviation experts have arrived in Abu Dhabi to interrogate al-Hammami. They’re joining intelligence agents from Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the U.S. in a multi-nation probe.
Investigators suspect Hammami wasn’t just trying to dump the Boeing 737 MAX 8 into the sea; he was plotting a horrifying, 9/11-style Kamikaze attack aimed straight at Tel Aviv’s iconic Azrieli Towers.
The horror unfolded in the skies when al-Hammami hacked Indian-born Captain Smit Machchhar using the cockpit’s own emergency crash axe. The terrorist pulled the controls into a death spiral, dropping the jet 14,000 feet in thirty seconds. Bleeding and battered, Captain Machchhar fought back, popping the reinforced cockpit door open just in time for Israeli passengers to storm the cockpit. An Israeli passenger, Yaniv Hion, grabbed the controls and brought the plane out of its plunge before an off-duty pilot was rushed in to guide the plane to a miraculous emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
“When I got inside, I saw the attacker on the controls, between the two seats,” Hion recalled. “There were no pilots in the seats. One was down, and the attacker was on the controls. Another person came in with me. I grabbed the attacker, put him in a chokehold, and first of all pulled him out. … He was trying to destroy the controls in order to disable the plane. That’s what I saw.”
New details about al-Hammami’s past are emerging. According to regional sources, Oman Air barred him from flying over concerns that he had adopted extremist views; Fox News reported this was linked to visits to radical Islamic websites. He was reportedly moved to an administrative job at the airline. In 2025, he completed three months of pre-employment training with Royal Air Maroc but wasn’t hired.
Hammami reportedly traveled to Syria. He later joined Flydubai, where he had worked for less than a year. His hiring checks reportedly focused on criminal records rather than signs of radicalization. According to an Israeli official, this was his first flight into Israel, raising questions about how an Omani pilot was assigned to the route at all, since Israel’s agreement with Flydubai bars pilots from countries without diplomatic ties.
An Emirati source admitted the global pilot shortage left airlines rushing hiring checks, calling the oversight a “very serious failure.”
Israel is tightening crew screenings on all incoming foreign flights.
